Possibility: Ghost Ship
by Mystic83
Summary: FINISHED! What if the Cylons on board the Galactica could not be stopped? What if they took control of the whole ship, leaving death and destruction everywhere they turned? KaraLee, hints of BoomerLee
1. Part One

**This will be a series of stand-alone stories which deal with the choices that the characters on Battlestar Galactica have made throughout the first half of the second season (I'll be posted in as much of the order of the season as I can). I want to explore what would have happened/changed if things had gone differently. Some of the stories will be angst, some will be shippy, some will be funny. There will be different pairings throughout. Don't feel like you have to check out each one to understand the others. All I ask is that if it intrigues you, then give it a try. Hope you enjoy reading the stories as much as I enjoyed writing them!****_

* * *

There are pivotal moments in one's life where if you take the wrong path everything may change. Those changes may be for the good or for the bad. The possibilities are endless._**

* * *

Kara Thrace's first instinct was to gasp. She managed to hold that in, telling herself that maybe eyes could lie. They had in the past.

Her second instinct was to reach out and grab Helo's hand as they piloted the Heavy Raider towards the Fleet. At least she thought that was the Fleet. She couldn't really tell. Her eyes were still lying.

Her third instinct, the one she let herself indulge in briefly, was to cry as the ship registered no signs of power, no signs of movement, no signs of any life at all as they inched their way cautiously through space.

The air was torn with pieces of metal, bits of ships with which Kara was all too familiar. She tried to keep her eyes from focusing, all too afraid of seeing a battered name plate from a Viper or a recognizable ashen shell of a transport. Her eyes couldn't avoid the ship standing in the center of the space wreckage.

The Galactica.

Or as she liked to call it, home.

Her home was scarred. There were gashes on every visible surface as if hundreds upon thousands of ships had rammed themselves straight into the Battlestar. The only section that did not show signs of bombardment was actually a massive, gapping hole in the top of Galactica, and it suddenly struck Kara that the Combat Information Center had stood there once. The walls of the portside launching tubes the Heavy Raider was slowly creeping past were completely bent in upon themselves. Kara had to stifle a cry when she saw the cracked windows of the observation deck she had spent so many hours forgetting herself in.

"I don't understand, Starbuck," Helo said, breaking her from her thoughts. "You told me that the Fleet was holding out."

"They were, Helo," she hissed, glaring at him. The tears disappeared as anger quickly took over. "Do you think I would left if I didn't think they were fine?"

"She didn't know."

Kara turned to glower at Sharon Valerii. The Cylon hadn't spoken a word since their fight before leaving Caprica. Somehow Kara got the feeling that the fight and everything else that had happened to her on that planet was not just some accidental occurrence. And the anger intensified. "I'm sure you knew, though. Kind of ironic that you pressed us so hard to leave the Resistance behind to get this stupid piece of metal back to the Fleet. We could have been doing some good on Caprica if we had stayed."

"You could have done some good if you stayed with Galactica, too, Kara."

Kara's jaw tightened as she fought to keep her fury in check.

"I want you to know that I had no idea about this," Sharon said, her expression still blank. "I've separated myself from them."

"You expect me to believe you can just turn off your nature?"

"We are what we choose to be."

Kara felt the urge to punch those holier-than-thou-art words right out of her mouth. The impulse really wasn't all the surprising. There was only so much of this she could take. Now that her secret was known, Sharon, someone Kara once considered a friend, seemed to have lost any sign of the emotions that could identify her as human. She spoke of things that would cause any person to break down in anger or guilt or grief as if they meant nothing to her.

Helo stared at Kara for a few moments, watching her struggle to hold back her rage, before turning to the other woman on the Raider. "Sharon. Do you have any idea what happened?"

Sharon inched herself close to the window to get a better look at the horrifying sight in front of them. "From the looks of it, we are witnessing the aftereffects of humanity's final stand. There are Raider parts mixed in with the rest of the ships, maybe enough to be a whole base star squadron. No sign of the base star, though. Must have jumped out of space when the job was complete."

"Okay. Nothing we didn't know," Helo said, turning to give her a small smile before looking back once more at the grisly scene before their eyes. "The starboard side looks just as bad."

"The flight pod has a hole in it," Kara pointed out. "Must have happened sometime in the fight."

"You're not actually thinking about landing this thing in Galactica?" Sharon asked.

"I'm not thinking about it. I'm doing it."

"Wait a minute!" Helo cried. "Didn't the starboard flight pod get turned into a museum?"

"It's still part of the ship," Kara said, steering the Heavy Raider closer. "That's all that matters."

"Don't you think we should discuss this a little more?" Helo continued to yell.

"No. My ship, my decision."

"Technically, I got the ship for you," Sharon interjected.

"Technically, you would still be rotting on Caprica if I hadn't showed up." Kara powered down the thrusters as the Galactica loomed in front of them. "I win."

"Fine. We'll land. But what do you think we're going to do when we get in there?"

"Look for survivors, Helo. Load them into the ship and go down to finish the mission on Kobol or take them back to Caprica. We can't stay here."

"How do you propose we look for survivors?" Sharon asked. "I mean, we're landing in an area of the ship that probably has little to no pressure. We'll suffocate within seconds."

"Oh? Do you need air?"

Sharon sent a glare Kara's way. "Of course I need air."

"That's too bad." The Raider jolted slightly as Kara eased it into the remains of the Battlestar. "Though it does make the concept of flushing you things out the airlock a lot more interesting."

"And you call us cruel."

"Enough!" Helo yelled. "If you two would stop bickering for a second, you might realize that the pressure isn't a problem. It seems someone out there is watching over us."

Kara gave him a puzzled look before leaning over to check the read-out. "The ship's pressurizing around us." She turned to look angrily at Sharon. "Almost as if they were expecting us."

"Do not start accusing her again," Helo warned. "Let's just take this for what it is. We can get out of the Heavy Raider now, do your little search and rescue, and be gone before anyone knows we were here."

The ship banged against the launching tube floor with only a slight bump and whirred to a stop. No one said a word as they all disengaged their safety belts on their seats and stood up. Kara only paused slightly to bend down, pick up the tube containing the Arrow of Apollo, and sling it over her shoulder. "Okay. We need to move towards the hole in the middle of the ship. That's where the CIC and the main bunkrooms were. If anyone's alive, they'll be assembled close to the supplies."

Helo gave her a small nod, and after checking to make sure Sharon was behind them, started to climb the ladder out of the flight tube behind Kara. The hangar bay was a mess, partially from the attack by the Cylons and partially from the obvious efforts by the Fleet to turn it back into a functional space. It looked unquestionably abandoned. Helo decided that had to be a good thing.

"Sharon?" he called down the tube.

"I'm here," she said as she reached the last rung and accepted Helo's hand up into the hangar.

"Oh goodie," Kara said, rolling her eyes as she watched Helo check Sharon over for injury. He was way too concerned about that toaster's welfare, she decided. "Can we get a move on before the Cylons realize we brought their lost appliance home?"

"Always with the toaster jokes. Such racism."

Kara's eyes went wide as she twisted to see they were no longer alone. "Sharon?" she whispered taking a step towards the woman she had known for seven years. There were cuts and bruises adorning her whole body, but she looked as stubborn as Kara had always remembered her. It was hard to adjust to the idea that she had never been the person that Kara thought she knew.

"Thrace." Boomer's eyes shifted past where Kara stood and her face went pale. "Helo?"

"Hello, Sharon," Helo said, a slight twinge of sadness in his voice.

"I left you on Caprica."

"You brought him back from Caprica, too," Kara interjected. Helo turned his body to let her see the third party in their group. "Sharon, meet Sharon. She's pregnant with Helo's kid. Other Sharon, this is the woman Helo fell in love with and the one I thought was my friend all those years. Now that that's out of the way maybe you can tell us what you did to the Fleet, Boomer? Perhaps betray everyone who ever cared for you to by calling in your little mechanical friends? Or maybe you just shot them all yourself?"

"She didn't do this."

Kara looked over Boomer's shoulder and realized the Cylon was not alone. Her eyes fell first on the man who had addressed them as he stepped up to stand beside Boomer. It took her a few seconds to recognize him. Hot Dog did not look like the fresh nugget she had left behind. He was holding a rather ominous looking gun and actually looked like he knew how to use it. Standing to his left was Billy Keikeya. Kara felt ashamed that her first thought was to wonder how a man like that managed to survive a Cylon attack. But then her eyes locked with the last person of their group, the one person she had always trusted, as he hung in the background, and it all made sense.

"Lee?" she said hesitantly taking a step towards where he stood.

Boomer's hand shot out to stop her. "He's not the man you remember so don't try to make him that way, Starbuck."

Lee held her gaze for a moment before finally dropping his eyes. She desperately wished she could say his eyes were full of fear or determination or even anger, but none of those emotions were there. Instead, he just stood there, his whole being vacant of anything. And he wasn't saying a word.

Kara was pulled away from her study of him as Boomer, who seemed to be in charge of these three men, tossed a gun at her. "Suit up. You can tell us your story as we go, but right now we have to move out."

"Explosive rounds?" Kara asked as she took a good look at the gun in her hands.

"They're the only thing that will stop the Centurians," Hot Dog interjected as he turned to hand Helo his own weapon. "There aren't many left so don't waste them."

"Where are we going?" Kara asked, stepping into stride alongside Boomer as she led their group into the dead ship's corridors. She noticed that Lee had purposefully maneuvered himself to the back, but she didn't have time to dwell on it.

"It's inconsequential to you right now," Boomer informed her.

"Inconsequential my ass!" Kara yelled. She unholstered the gun Boomer had just given her along with the gun she picked up on Caprica and trained them on the Cylon. "I feel like I've stepped into some kind of bizarre alternate universe here, and I want some answers now before we take another step."

"Never one for patience, were you?" Boomer said calmly. Her eyes drifted to something over Kara's shoulder.

The faint click of a safety being released sounded in her ear, and Kara twisted slightly to see that Lee was holding a gun to the back of her head. She was suddenly overwhelmed by how wrong this whole situation felt. "What the frak?" she whispered, turning to look at Boomer as she put the gun back into the belt around her hip. "All right. That's it. When did you toasters learn how to brainwash people?"

Boomer rolled her eyes. "Always looking for the easy answer, Kara." She motioned to Lee, and Kara felt the gun being lowered away from her. "I promise you'll get your answers when we have time. For now we have to move."

Not sure if she really had any other option, Kara did as she was told. The group slowly made their way through the familiar corridors while she took the time to take an inventory of those around her.

Helo and Sharon were keeping close together in an obvious display that like her, they didn't trust the others. She couldn't fault them for wanting to stick with what they knew. Support was the kind of thing you wanted in a time like this. Kara's eyes darted to where Lee stood at the back of the group, but she quickly looked away.

Hot Dog was walking right behind Kara and Boomer. Kara was still in awe of how at home he seemed in this environment. This was a kid who washed out of the Fleet Academy because he was too damn cocky for his own good. And now he appeared to be at the level that Lee was when he graduated War College, practically perfect in every way. Kara scolded herself for bringing her thoughts back around to her friend. She didn't have time.

Billy was hanging towards the back, right behind Helo and Sharon. Kara noticed he was favoring his right side and was surprised to realize that there was a small circle of red on the left shoulder of his shirt which was rapidly spreading. He must have gotten hurt right before the two groups stumbled upon each other. It was odd to imagine Billy fighting.

Kara watched as Billy turned to whisper something to Lee. Lee smiled and gave him a nod of assurance which sent Billy jogging up to the front to talk with Boomer. Kara started to wonder if maybe the Cylon wasn't in control. At least that would mean one thing hadn't changed. Lee had always been the man with the plan.

The group of seven walked in relative silence until they were about halfway to their destination. At that point, Helo abruptly admitted that the quiet was starting to creep him out and began to explain what had happened on Caprica as a way of eliminating the eerie calm. Kara found it odd that she hadn't realized how much she was dreading having to explain the ten days she spent away from the Fleet until Helo took the pressure right off her shoulders. Not to mention that he was being so fraking thorough she didn't even feel the need to inject or correct him in any way.

The sudden, honest offering of information seemed to please Boomer. She motioned for the group to pause for a break, and most seized the opportunity to get off their feet. There was wreckage here and there throughout the whole corridor which made it easy to find a place to sit.

"The Cylons attacked ten days ago when there was a confusion with FTL jump points. You had been gone maybe half a day at most, Starbuck. The Galactica was separated from the whole of the Fleet and when it returned, it accidentally brought a Heavy Raider back with it. The Cylons got word of our location and sent a large part of their force." Boomer turned to look at Kara. "Before you ask, I knew nothing about it."

"Don't be offended. She's suspicious of me, too, even after I saved her," Sharon threw in from her place sitting next to Helo.

"You're toasters," Kara defended with a shrug, trying her best to focus on what Boomer was saying. She hadn't realized it would be this hard to keep herself from staring at where Lee sat. Something was definitely off about him. It was more than the fact that he seemed to be avoiding her at all costs. He hadn't spoken to Helo or Sharon either.

"The Fleet was gone within an hour. There was nothing I could do, no way I could warn anyone. Tigh had locked me up in a cell in the brig."

"For what?" Kara asked.

"Shooting the Old Man." Boomer's words seemed to almost challenge Kara to get angry and attack her. Kara wished she could say that she didn't want to rise to the task, but her hands were already instinctively moving to draw her gun.

"It was a blessing in the end," Hot Dog said, cutting in before Kara could act on her impulse. "She saved Adama the agony of watching his Fleet die."

"Hell of a blessing," Helo said.

"You weren't here," Hot Dog said. "You have no fraking clue what it was like."

"That's right. Because a man who struggle to stay alive on a planet experiencing a nuclear holocaust would have no idea what it's like to watch everything die around you."

Boomer could feel the focus slipping away from her as a old school/new school fight bubbled up between Helo and Hot Dog. Rolling her eyes, she motioned for Hot Dog to back down. They had to stay focused. "Regardless of whether it was for the best or not, I shot Adama and I was locked up for it. After the initial attack, I was in my cell for two hours, sitting there in the eerie quiet. I thought everyone had been destroyed, but I had no idea how. All I knew was there was something inside me that was calling out, and I wasn't liking what it was saying."

"That was before Captain Adama and I showed up," Billy added. "We had been protecting the President when the Cylons first attacked, trying to find a way to the CIC."

"You were the only two to escape unharmed?" Helo asked.

"It depends on your definition of unharmed. I mean-" Billy started to say as his eyes drifted to look over at Lee.

Before he could continue with whatever he was about to say, Boomer stood up. "Let's get moving again. We can continue this conversation as we go."

Kara nodded but filed away whatever had just gone down for future questioning. She knew that everyone would just assume he was talking about the wound to his shoulder even though it had only recently happened. But she had seen his brief glance at Lee. This whole situation was starting to send up red flags all over with the most alarming part of it being that Lee had yet to say a word. She figured at the least, Lee would have gotten into a mild shouting match with Helo by now.

"They figured that there was nothing to lose in letting me out of my cell so, as a group, we made our way to the CIC. Hot Dog was the only one alive there. He had managed to get clear of the main blast the Cylons sent to take out the head of Galactica."

"We've been trying to keep away from the Centurions ever since," Hot Dog added.

"They're still on the ship?" Sharon asked from her position walking beside Helo.

"They know we're here so their job is not done," Boomer answered.

"You don't have a lot going for you here," Kara pointed out as they turned down a new corridor. "I don't know how you've kept alive this long."

"We have two Cylons. Three now that you showed up. That should amount to something," Billy replied.

"Three?" Kara's brow furrowed in bewilderment as she looked around at their group in panic. There were only two Boomers which meant that the third Cylon had to be someone else, another one of her friends. She couldn't take another blow like that.

"Well, two and a half if you want to get technical," Billy added.

"Now's not the time," Boomer said, stepping in before Kara could ask more questions. "The Cylons have picked up on our location."

"You're still hardwired in with them, aren't you?" Sharon asked her counterpart, the shock evident on her face.

"Aren't you?"

"She gave up her connection to protect the baby," Helo informed them. "I'm surprised for someone who seems to dislike the Cylons as much as any human that you wouldn't have done the same thing."

"The connection is useful," Sharon said as if that explained it all. "Plus, there are circumstances that keep me from pulling away. Let's just say that I need to stay connected for specific reasons."

The group lapsed into silence as they approached a small arms locker. Boomer instructed Hot Dog to take point as she fell back to stand next to Helo and Sharon. Kara found it odd that Lee and Billy also shifted over to stand next to her two traveling companions. Figuring that was probably enough protection for them, she walked up to Hot Dog. "Go ahead and pull the door open so we can get this over with."

Hot Dog stared at her for a moment before responding. "I don't need the permission of a deserter."

She was left blinking in surprise at his harsh words as he pushed the hatch and ducked into the open arms locker. "It's clear," he yelled out a few seconds later.

"Get in," Boomer instructed, pushing the group forward. She grabbed Kara's arm as she was about to enter the locker and pulled her to the side. "Don't mind, Hot Dog. He's been through a lot in the past ten days, a lot of it we don't even know about. He won't talk about what happened to him when the CIC was taken out."

Kara was taken back at Boomer's sudden need to explain. Why would a Cylon care what she thought of her old student? "Thanks."

Boomer nodded and stepped into the locker with Kara at her heels. "Shut the door, Hot Dog," she instructed as she set down the large gun she had been carrying over her shoulder.

Kara started looking around along with the others. There were several shelves filled to the brim with explosive rounds and the cabinets beside them had a wide selection of guns. "What is this place?" she asked, purposefully turning to look at Lee as he stood by the closed hatch. He barely glanced at her.

"The Cylons didn't think we'd be stupid enough to come so close to the depressurized hole they created," Boomer explained as she pulled a few small detonators off of the shelf in front of her. "So this is where we've been stockpiling our supplies. This is pretty much all the weapons this ship still has. There's some food in the cupboards down below if you're hungry. It's just normal wartime rations we took from the wreckage of the mess, but it'll do."

Kara watched as Helo immediately pounced on the possibility of food. He pulled out a few pouches and handed them to both Sharon and herself. Kara knew exactly how he felt. Caprica didn't have many fine dining options these days.

"Before you start eating, there's something I've been wondering about," Boomer said, staring intently at Kara. "That second operation the Cylons put you through? What was that?"

"I don't know, and I don't think I want to know," Kara said shortly.

Boomer turned to look at Sharon briefly, and the two Cylons shared an unreadable look. "You said you were at an abandoned hospital? Was it one of the farms?"

"You know about them?" Helo cried, eyes going wide. He hadn't mentioned the new intel they picked up on Caprica about the Cylons and their sadistic baby farms.

"I pick up new information every day now that I've accepted my nature. If you were indeed at a farm, then whatever they did to you had something to do with procreation, Kara. The Cylons are fascinated by humanity's need to continue their line through love."

"You speak as if you're not one of them," Kara pointed out.

Boomer didn't pause. "You have a destiny, Kara."

Kara looked over at where Sharon was eating. "So I've been told."

"It's not what you think. Whatever they did to you, it did not cause permanent damage. You can still have children."

"Don't tell me the Cylons have a training course on the reproductive systems of Starbuck and how they can _not _be harmed," Hot Dog said with a laugh from his position lounging on the bench in the middle of the room. Most of the room joined in his laughter, but it was quickly apparent that Kara wasn't finding the humor in the situation.

"Starbuck?" Helo asked hesitantly.

She continued to stare into space with a horrified look for a few moments before turning to glare at Boomer. "Frak. Do not tell me that the repopulation of the human race is all on my fraking shoulders. I never wanted kids."

"Repopulation won't be a problem," Lee whispered into her ear. "We're going to find Earth."

Kara jumped in surprise. She hadn't realized Lee had moved from his position by the hatch. Not to mention that he had chosen now to speak to her for the first time.

"I think we might need some of the more creative weapons that are stashed by the port hangar bay," Lee said, turning to look at the others. He walked over to where Hot Dog stood and whispered something to him. Hot Dog nodded in reply, and Lee turned to look at Billy. "Billy? Go with him and take Helo and his Sharon with you. It'll be good to have a Cylon there in case you run into trouble."

Billy nodded and motioned for the others to follow him. Helo told them to hold on and walked over to Kara. "Let me take this just in case, Starbuck," he said as he slipped the almost forgotten case holding the Arrow of Apollo off her shoulder.

Kara didn't even think to object until all four had left her alone with Lee and Boomer. Suddenly she was all too aware that she was stuck in a small arms locker with a toaster and a man who hadn't shown one ounce of concern for her since she showed up on this ship.

Lee waited until the hatch door was closed before stepping over to stand next to Boomer. Kara watched in awe as he reached out and brushed a patch of dirt off Boomer's face. It hurt her to suddenly recognize the look in Lee's eyes. It was a look that he usually reserved for her and only when they were alone.

Suddenly she felt like a stranger intruding upon an extremely private moment.

"Would you leave me alone with Kara for a little while?" he asked. Kara tried not to stare at the way his hand lingered on her cheek.

Boomer shot a look in Kara's direction before pulling away from Lee's touch. She walked to the hatch and pulled it open before turning back to speak. "Give him a chance, Kara. Like I said before, he's a different man now, but he's still the Lee you love." The hatch clicked closed behind her, leaving them in silence once more.


	2. Part Two

"You're scaring me, Lee," Kara whispered when the quiet became too much for her.

"I'm sorry. I don't know how to start. This all has been an adjustment for me, and I can't say I'm back to normal yet."

"What's been an adjustment?"

"I'm surprised you hadn't noticed." Lee set down the gun which Kara suddenly realized he had been grasping tightly in his right hand this whole time. He pushed the sleeve of his jacket back. "This was what Billy was talking about when he said we didn't escape the Cylons without being harmed."

Kara was about to cry that she knew Billy had been referring to Lee and not himself when her eyes finally registered what he was showing her. The whole of his hand had been replaced with some sort of metal device. Where the metal met flesh looked slightly purple and scarred, almost as if it was just a bad bruise that was almost healed over. "What is that?" she asked, pulling her eyes up to meet his.

Lee flexed his hand before letting out a long breath. "It's a Cylon Centurian hand. I lost mine protecting President Roslin in the first few minutes of the attack. There were Cylons everywhere, and the rounds we had weren't working. One attacked us and my shot made contact with it when it was in mid-air. It exploded in a shower of shrapnel, and a piece caught my arm. There was so much chaos I didn't even grasp what had happened at first." Lee realized that he was babbling and took a deep breath before trying again. "In the end, the only reason I made it out of there alive was because the Cylons perceived me as little to no threat because of the damage to my hand. I was barely conscious, the pain was so great. As soon as the Centurians had moved on, Billy dragged me to the brig. He kept insisting that there were medical supplies there that he could use to stop the bleeding. I think he might have been in shock from the fallout, but I was too out of it myself to realize. So we went to the brig but instead of finding supplies, we found Boomer."

"This is too much," Kara said, shaking her head and taking a step back. She knew that he was trying to go slowly while still telling her everything as quickly as possible before she freaked out. And freak out she probably would because she was telling the truth. It was too much. First her home was damaged and now Lee, too? Her heart couldn't cope with this.

"Please, just try to listen," Lee pleaded. "I don't know any other way of explaining except to tell you the little I remember about what went on."

Kara could sense that Lee was trying his best to make her understand while containing his frustration at her unwillingness to listen, and that felt familiar amid all this chaos. So after a moment she nodded and he continued. "The only reason Billy let Boomer out of her cell was because she promised she could fix me. I told him not to be stupid and that he needed to get a transport to get away before the Cylons realized we weren't dead. He didn't listen to me. Said I was losing too much blood to know what I was talking about. Probably only had a few minutes left in me."

Lee paused as he realized he had lost some of Kara's attention. She had gone from staring at him in concern to staring intently at his hand in what he could only guess was her usual morbid curiosity. He knew what she wanted. Bracing himself, he extended his right hand, and she reached out hesitantly to touch the cool metal. She jumped when the fingers suddenly extended into long, sharp claws.

"Sorry! It takes some getting used to," Lee said with a laugh. "I guess I should just be glad Boomer took the time to modify it so it wasn't all sharp and deadly the entire time."

Kara watched him concentrate and the claws retracted back in to form a "normal" hand. "I still don't understand how you ended up with it."

"I was mostly passed out from the pain, but from what Billy tells me, Boomer said she could use the metal scrap and what she knew of Cylon technology to attach a hand from a dead Centurian to my arm."

"Why would she want to help you?"

"I think she knew that there was no way she could get through the situation we were in on her own. No matter what's gone on, somehow Boomer's held on to the fact that she had a life as Sharon Valerii once. She still perceives us as her friends and this ship as her home. I think that's why she didn't want to see me die."

Kara's fingers continued to linger at where the metal met flesh. It was becoming rather distracting, but Lee found that he didn't want her to stop. It had felt like an eternity since someone had touched him so openly.

"I still don't understand how it was possible," he continued to explain, "but it worked. Somehow the nerves in my arm bonded to the hardware inside the Centurian hand. I can feel it just like I could feel my old hand."

"That makes no sense."

"It's just another thing about the Cylons that we had no idea. If you think about it, this could be a major medical advancement for us."

"And you only had to lose a hand to figure it out," Kara hissed, her words laced with sarcasm and anger. Now that her curiosity was satisfied she was right back to concern. She had no clue how he could be so rational about such a crazy thing.

"Please don't be like that, Kara."

She could feel his voice falter as his tone turned to pleading. That vulnerability made her tear her gaze away from Lee's hand so that she could take a good look at him. He was standing there in front of her, obviously battered and broken, and yet he wasn't showing one physical sign of faltering besides the weakness in his voice. He wasn't showing signs of anything. Kara reached out to rest her hand on his cheek and tried her best to hold the tears back. It was hard to see him like this. "What did they do to you, Lee?"

"I have a part of Cylon technology in me now. It has a certain amount of influence over my behavior."

Her eyes went wide at the notion that something so small could affect someone so much. Through her shock, she managed to choke out, "Give me an example of how it could influence you."

Lee shut his eyes for a second, taking a deep breath before reaching out to grasp the hand that lay on his cheek. "Well, take when I saw you in that empty hangar bay. All I wanted to do was go running to you and pull you into my arms and never let go. Instead I stood there and analyzed the probability that it was actually you in front of me and did my best not to stare at the abomination living in the belly of the traitor Cylon you brought with you." Lee's body stiffened as he realized what he had just said. "I think that was the hand talking at the end there."

"You really wanted to never let me go?" Kara asked, choosing to ignore everything else he had said for the time being.

Lee's eyes held hers as he nodded slowly. "I need every pilot I have."

"Even the screw-ups?"

"Especially this screw-up," he said, giving her a smile Kara had thought she would never see again. "As fraking annoying as it is, I love you, Kara. You can keep trying, but I don't think anything you do could change that."

"Damnit, Lee. You're going to make cry."

"I think you already are." He reached his left hand up to push the tears off her cheek. After a pause, he leaned in to lightly brush his lips across where the tears had once been. "Gods, I missed you."

"What about Boomer?" Kara asked as Lee rested his forehead against hers. "You seem awfully… close."

"She recognizes the things I've been dealing with, things that Hot Dog and Billy wouldn't even begin to comprehend. She kept herself connected to the part of her consciousness that is Cylon just so she could be sure that the hand she had given me wasn't taken over. She's been teaching me how to control it. I respect her."

"Do you respect her like you respect me?" Kara asked. The question was loaded, and they both knew it.

"You have to understand, Kara. Under any other circumstances, she wouldn't have been the one I turned to for help." Lee let out a laugh and wrapped his arms around Kara, pulling her in tight. "I would have turned to you. You've earned my unconditioned respect, and when my ass is on the line, it's you I want beside me."

His touch was so welcome to her that Kara didn't even think to fight it. "I abandoned you," she whispered with disgust as his words sunk in.

"For something you thought was important, I get that. We all make stands for things we believe in. This life is too damn short to dwell on whether we made the right choices or not."

Kara pulled back to look up at him. "What happened to you while I was gone? The Lee I know would never forgive me so easily."

"Now it might just be my crazy Cylon hand but you deciding to jump away from the Fleet doesn't seem that weird in retrospect to all the things I've done."

A giggle fell off the tip of her tongue before she could stop it.

"I missed that sound," Lee said, tightening his hold on her. "So, what's the verdict, Starbuck? Do I pass the test?"

"You're okay, but the jury's still out on your hand," Kara replied. She snuggled against his chest and breathed him in. She could stand here with him forever. If only it wasn't the second end of the world, she was pretty sure she would. "I hate to be the serious one and break up this little moment we're having, Lee, but the leader in me insists. Do you have any fraking clue what our next move is?"

Lee paused a second before pulling away and bending down to pick up the gun he had dropped. "For starters, you and I need to load up on as many of those explosive rounds as we can. We're taking your Heavy Raider and going down to the surface of Kobol to find the Tomb of Athena and use that Arrow you've been carrying around to find where Earth is."

"You still believe in that?"

He shook his head. "Nope. Never really did." At her confused look, he shrugged his shoulders. "You did, though, and that's enough for me. Besides, in case you haven't heard, there's not really a whole lot to stick around here for."

Kara nodded and began to pile up explosive rounds into a nearby pack. A few seconds later, Lee joined her. "I have some good news for you, though," he whispered.

"How can you possibly have any good news for me, Lee?" she asked with a short laugh.

"Well, we never got around to rescuing that downed Raptor on the surface of Kobol. If they're still alive when we get there, you'll have Cally and Seelix with whom to share the burden of repopulating the human race."

"All right!" Kara said with a sarcastic enthusiasm. "Get me on that Raider and let's get going!"

Lee gave her a smile, pleased to see that some things didn't change. He watched her at work for a moment before turning back to the job at hand.

Kara let her mind work through what he had just told her, and she was pleased to feel things starting to add up. It didn't help the ache that was deep inside her for what had been done to her home, but it made things a little easier knowing she still had Lee to depend on. Well, she mostly had Lee to depend on. She still wasn't sure if she could trust that hand. Her eyes ducked to look at his left hand, and she remembered the way it had sat not so idly on her hip as Lee had held her only seconds earlier. Maybe she couldn't trust that one either.

"You're staring," Lee said as he hitched the pack up onto his shoulder and held a gun out for her to take.

"Sorry. Just wondering a few things."

"Like what?"

Kara followed his lead and stepped out into the empty corridor. "Like why you were so scared to tell me about what happened to you? You barely said a word to me since I got here, and that only changed because I started freaking out about the Cylons' master baby plan."

"I don't know if you realized it, Kara, but your eyes shifted right to where I had been standing when you said you never wanted to have kids. I know you too well to just let a comment like that hang in the air."

"I don't want kids."

"You're lying," Lee said as they walked slowly down the corridor side-by-side. "But I'll let it slide for now. You asked me a question, and you deserve an answer. Honestly? I was scared. I didn't know how you were going to take it. I'm a different person than when you left the Fleet. I do things now that you would never dream I would do. I make impulsive decisions, risk my life for no good reason sometimes." His words cut off, and he turned to look at her suspiciously. "Wait a second. Do you have an Cylon hand I never knew about?"

She let out a laugh. "I know. Your little description does sound a lot like me."

They lapsed into silence again, and Kara was suddenly took in the significance of their surroundings. They were right outside the bunkroom she had called home. Her mind suddenly recalled of all the times she had gone on a run around these very same corridors. For the first two years on Galactica, her daily jogs had been a solitary time where she could really wrap her mind around things. But then the world had ended and Lee showed up on her doorstep. Every day from then on, he had been the one to drag her out of bed to run each morning. She used to hate how persistent he could be, annoying her with those damn cadences from Academy. In retrospect, she figured she'd be eternally grateful for the memories of racing with him down the corridors of their home. He made her forget how tough the world could be.

"So, are you in love?"

Lee's abrupt words made her stumble. "What?"

"Helo was talking about that pyramid player on Caprica. Anders, right? He seemed to imply that you were attached to him." Lee cleared his throat and turned to meet her surprised gaze.

Kara immediately moved her eyes down to watch her feet as they continued through the corridor. She had really been hoping that Lee would have just glazed over that part of their story.

"He mentioned that you had a hard time leaving."

"I did."

"Fall in love or have a hard time leaving?"

"Anders was something I could rely on, Lee. I mean, I had just come back to my home planet to find out that it was nothing like I thought it would be. Obviously it wasn't anything like the last time I had seen it, but it also wasn't anything like I ever would have imagined. There were no bodies, no real damage. It was like humanity had simply boarded ships and left. The planet was abandoned. And then it wasn't. There were people. Real people who had nothing to do with the Cylons. They were resisting."

"And you fell right in with them."

"At first they were just useful, and then I got taken by the Cylons."

"I still can't believe Helo let that happen."

Kara was thrown off by the sudden raw anger in his voice, and it made her pull him to a stop. "Lee, there was nothing he could have done. There's was nothing _anyone _could have done. When the Cylons attacked, the whole area turned into chaos. I didn't even realize I was hit until it was too late. So if you want to blame someone, blame me for not having my head in the game."

"Kara," Lee said, looking at her in disbelief.

"I just wanted to get that point across."

"And you did." They both started moving again in silence for a few moments before Lee pointed out, "You still haven't answered my question."

"Anders was someone new to me, Lee. He was refreshing, untainted by what the world had gone through. It was such a large change of pace when you considered what we've had to live through the past few months, and I've never been one to shy away from something new. He was something completely different than I expected. In my mind, Anders stood for the way life used to be."

"Used to be?"

"The world's not going back to what it once was. And neither am I." Kara sighed. "I was hesitant to leave Anders and the rest of the resistance back on Caprica because I thought I was leaving them to a life worse than mine. But coming back here, I know that the opposite is true. They have a better chance of finding something good by staying on Caprica. The Cylons might grow tired of the planet and move on. They could rebuild."

"We could rebuild, too," Lee pointed out.

"With what? There's only a handful of us left."

"A handful's more than none."

"That's very positive of you, Lee. Problem is I don't see one thing left that is worth going through all that trouble for."

"Obviously I didn't make one thing clear then," he said.

Before Kara knew what was happening, Lee had her pinned against a bulkhead wall and was giving her the kind of predatory look that made a girl think being the prey wasn't that bad of a thing. The last time he had looked at her like this was on Colonial Day right before he stepped in close to ask her to dance. The memory of his flirty tone made her shiver slightly.

He ducked his head down to kiss the side of her neck. "Oh, that's new," Kara whispered. She forced herself to grab hold of the protruding piece of the wall when she felt Lee's lips part as his tongue reached out to taste her.

By the time he finished his slow journey towards her lips, Kara felt like her knees were going to give way. Lee chose that moment to grab her tightly by the waist and pull her in close to him. Her heart sped up as she brought her arms instinctively around his head to tickle the back of his neck. She had always loved the way this hair felt running through her fingers. She could feel his arms strengthen around her as he slowly pulled her in until she was standing on the tips of her toes. Never once did her lips leave his.

Whatever was going on between them was unfolding like a slow, sensual dance. It was the kind of kiss Kara hadn't felt in years. It demanded from her but at the same time would take no more than she was willing to give. The way his lips pressed gently against hers with just a little bit of pressure was virtually intoxicating. She couldn't help but part her lips in response, asking him to push her further.

Their tongues melted together in a desperate quest to touch, to taste. It was as if they were both struggling to find something in one another and when it lay naked and exposed in front of them, they discovered that they couldn't let go. Breaking apart now would hurt too much.

Eventually it became a matter of oxygen and Kara felt Lee pull away, leaving her braced up against the wall with her eyes held shut and her mouth hanging open. She figured she would try to wake up when her heart stopped beating so fraking fast.

"Point taken," she said, her voice reduced to a sexy whisper as she slowly slid her eyes open.

Lee looked like he was about to say something, but they were interrupted by a figure coming running around the corner. Kara wasn't surprised to see it was Boomer. What surprised her was the little sting of jealousy in the pit of her stomach. It was hard to stare your "replacement" right in the face. She tried to push that ugly feeling away as Boomer skidded to a stop in front of them. Plus Lee's arms were wrapped around her body and Kara could still feel his heart beating from the kiss they had just shared. If there had been a competition going on for Lee's affection, she was pretty sure she had just won.

"Is something wrong, Boomer?" Kara asked as she pulled herself out of Lee's arms. It wouldn't be nice to rub the Cylon's nose in her crushing defeat.

Boomer glared at her for a moment before turning to look at Lee. "I was nice and let you two have your little private reunion moment, and now the rest of the team has dropped off the DRADIS. I can't find them anywhere, Lee. I've been running all over the ship. They've disappeared."

"You think the Cylons got them?" Lee said. The concern was evident on his face.

"It was only a matter of time," Boomer said. "I doubled back as quick as I could. Figured if they had gotten to the others, you were next on the list. We need to get off this ghost ship as soon as possible if we want to stay alive."

"We have to look for the others," Kara said, looking to Lee. He gave her a small nod in support. "They might not be dead."

"There's not time," Boomer said, shaking her head. "There's no way they survived if the Cylons found them."

"We're not abandoning them without knowing for sure," Kara insisted.

Kara was waiting for Boomer to continue arguing when the air erupted with gunfire. She watched as the machine who had once been her friend took hit after hit. Turning in shock, she was stunned to see Lee standing beside her, the smoking gun held firmly in his right hand.


	3. Part Three

Lee walked over to stand above Boomer's body and, after a moment's hesitation, fired two more rounds into her. Obviously satisfied that the machine was dead, he holstered his gun and grabbed Kara's hand, pulling her into motion. "We need to get the that Heavy Raider now before more Cylons come."

Kara finally found her voice after he had dragged her down half the corridor. "I know you told me that you would much rather have had me with you during this whole ordeal, and I'm really glad that I'm here to do that for you currently. But did you have to shoot her now that she's not necessary? She could have still been useful."

Lee turned back to roll his eyes at her. "I'm not stupid, Kara. That wasn't the Boomer that saved me."

"Oh really? And you knew that because?"

He pulled her up against a wall as they came to the end of the corridor and peeked around the corner. "Would you believe my hand told me it wasn't her?"

"No fraking way," Kara said, following him as he started running again. "No fraking way your hand could tell you that. I'm not that gullible."

"Okay. Maybe it didn't exactly come out and tell me, but the thing's a part of their network. If I concentrate hard enough, I can poke around a little. Can't really pull up intel that I don't already know, but at times it has its uses."

"Such as now?"

"Usually when I start poking around in the network, Boomer scolds me for taking unnecessary risks. This time it wasn't annoyance I felt radiating from her. It was fear. She was perceiving an unidentified threat trying to access her.

"Which meant she had no clue that it was you or that you could do that kind of thing," Kara exclaimed as she started to realize what Lee was trying to tell her. "Which means she wasn't the Boomer who gave you that hand."

"Exactly."

"Okay," Kara said hesitantly. She was still trying to process everything that was going on. There was just too much information coming at her way too quickly. "I get why you shot her. But why the frak are we doing what she said and heading to the Heavy Raider."

"Because she was right about one thing. We have to get off Galactica now."

"I need a little more explanation than that, Lee. I'm new to this whole game."

"That was the first humano-Cylon model we've encounter since they attacked us ten days ago. It's only been Centurians before. That means Boomer was a reinforcement. The Cylons have sent in the heavy hitters because they know you're here, Kara. You and that baby Sharon's caring are both extremely important to the toasters. I don't know why or how, but you are. They're not going to stop until they get you back. Now I think--"

Whatever he was about to say was cut off by the sudden outbreak of gunfire. Lee reacted instantaneously and pushed Kara down to the ground behind some massive piece of metal that had been ripped from the sides of Galactica. Reverting back to the battle tactics ingrained in them years earlier, Kara checked that her gun was ready to fire as Lee peeked over their temporary cover.

"Two Centurians at about one hundred feet," he yelled as the gunfire continued to press them down. "I hope you packed plenty of rounds. These sons of bitches are hard to kill."

"Is that a challenge?" Kara yelled back.

Lee drew two guns out of the holster strapped around his waist. "Are you up for it?"

As an answer, Kara stood up into the open air and fired two rounds. The first Centurian exploded immediately. "One down," she said, giving him a wink. "That wasn't so hard."

"Did I mention how much I missed you?" Lee said with a laugh. "I've never known anyone to be so competitive when it comes to staying alive."

"Funny," she said, reloading her gun as he took his turn to shoot at the remaining toaster. She wasn't surprised when there was a massive flare and blast of heat as Lee hit his mark. "So how much farther to the hangar bay?"

"We're almost there," Lee said, offering her a hand up.

"Do you think that we'll come across more toasters?"

"Probably. Which is why we need to move."

Kara did as he asked, and they started running through the corridors at a breakneck pace. "You really think the rest of the group will know it's time to leave?"

"They should already be there by now. I told Hot Dog to lead them back to your Raider when they were done getting the supplies from the portside hangar."

"Think they made it?"

Lee's eyes locked with hers for a brief moment before he quickened their pace. The unanswered question hung in the air between them as they raced to take the next step in leaving their last home behind. It went unsaid that they were both pushing themselves to the breaking point. This was it, the moment where you either fought your hardest to live or you fell back and were sucked in by the tide. Neither Lee nor Kara would the kind of people who were fine with just rolling over and waiting for wait to take them.

They were a few turns away from reaching their destination when Kara felt her knee give out. She hit the ground, having no time to brace herself, and was about to cry out for Lee to stop when she realized he already had.

"Frak," he hissed, helping her lean up against the wall. "I forgot about your knee."

"Didn't think it would do this," she said with a laugh. "I've pushed it before."

"You hurt it pretty fraking bad about five weeks ago, Kara," Lee said as he set down his gun and used his hands to carefully feel her knee. "If the world was different, you would be permanently grounded."

"Well, it's not different, and I'm not about to let myself be grounded. Help me up and let's get moving."

"We can wait a moment," Lee insisted, earning himself a pissed-off look from the woman beside him.

"Frak off and help me up, Lee."

Lee was about to protest again when a small thump made both pilots turn to look at the opposite end of the corridor. He watched helplessly as a hatchway was blown away and three identical blond women slowly sauntered through the newly made hole. It didn't even take him a second to realize that he was witnessing yet another human model of Cylon.

Grabbing Kara by the waist, Lee hauled her to her feet and together they hobbled to hide in a half-destroyed locker doorway. He grabbed her chin roughly, forcing Kara to look into his eyes. "Promise me that you will stay right here. Do not follow me."

"What are you planning, Lee?"

"I'm saving your broken ass, Starbuck," he said with a wink, pulling his gun out.

Kara held his eyes for a moment before reaching into her holster and holding her gun out to him. "Take two."

"I only need one to make this work." He pushed the barrel of the gun down to her side. "Keep yours. You might need it if I fall short."

"Lee," Kara said, reaching out to grab his hand. There were a million things she wanted to say to him, but she was pretty sure now was not the time. It seemed like there was never a right time with the kind of life they both led.

"Just promise me you'll stay out of the way," he said as he brushed his lips softly against her hand before letting it go.

Kara watched Lee jog towards the Cylons, making no move to hide his presence. He even went as far as to start screaming at them that if they moved an inch, he was going to shoot. She decided if drawing attention to their exact location was part of his brilliant plan to get them out of this one alive, then they were doomed.

"Stay out of the fraking way, huh?" Kara muttered to herself as she watched the three blond women turn to walk towards Lee. She pushed herself off the wall just enough so that she could get the sights of her gun trained on the toasters. "Brilliant move, you stupid fraking idiot. Thanks gods I insisted that we check this place for survivors, Lee Adama, because I don't think you would last another day with me watching your back."

Through the sight of her gun, Kara watched as Lee pulled himself to a stop right in front of the three Cylons. Even though she could barely hear what he was saying now, it was clear he was trying to reason with the machines. She desperately wished her knee hadn't given out so that she could be right beside him. That way she was within arm's reach to smack some sense into him.

Whatever Lee was saying seemed to be working, though, because the Cylons weren't shooting him yet. In fact, they looked like they were agreeing with him. Kara was about to relax when she saw Lee drop his gun, bend down to his knees, and carefully move his hands up behind his head in surrender. One of the blond Cylons smirked and reached down to pick up the gun he had dropped.

"Right about now would be a good time, Kara," Lee screamed over his shoulder.

She let out a small laugh before shaking her head and letting out a whisper, "Fraking genius." Lee would know better than any other person that she wouldn't listen to him. In fact, he had counted on it. The Cylons were now so focused on Lee that they didn't see her shots coming until it was too late. The gunfire caught the Cylon that was reaching for the gun in the head, stomach, and leg, effectively destroying its life. That was all the clear shots Kara could take before the other two realized what was happening and began to move.

Kara took a tentative step forward and hissed in pain at the way her knee screamed. Her head was just beginning to wrap itself around the fact that she was going to be forced to sit back and watch as Lee tried to protect them both. He took a massive backhand from one of the toasters, sending him flying down the corridor. Kara tried to rationalize, tried to tell herself there was no way she could make it to him in time to do any sort of good.

Who the frak was she kidding, though? Even if she couldn't make it to Lee's side, that didn't mean she wasn't going to try. This was Lee after all. She couldn't do that to him. Pushing back the pain, Kara started hobbling down the corridor as she helplessly watched the scene unfold before her eyes.

The Cylon that had hit Lee reached down and lifted him into the air by his neck. Kara was close enough to hear the Cylon mockingly ask him, "What did you think you would accomplish with your little suicidal act of heroism?"

Lee smiled and licked away the blood of his split lip. "Just wanted to get close enough to do this."

Kara faltered in her hobbling as Lee reached his right hand back and the hand morphed into the long, sharp claws she had seen earlier. He slashed at the Cylon's abdomen and the results were immediate. The machine's blood splattered against the wall as the woman lost her grip on him and crumbled to the ground.

The world seemed to revolve in slow motion as they all took in what had happened. The violence of his action had left the last remaining Cylon staring at Lee, eyes open wide. The toaster took a few instinctive steps away from Lee, and Kara was surprised to realize the machine might actually be afraid of him.

Aware that the fight was not quite over, Kara bit her lip and tried to pull herself along the wall the last few yards to where Lee stood. The pain immediately flared up in her knee as it was pushed past its breaking point. She gripped the sides of the wall tightly in her hand and forced herself to walk just a few steps more. She looked up to see that neither Lee nor the Cylon had moved forward to attack. They were just staring at one another. She still had time.

And then, just as quickly as it had come, the shock at what Lee had done to the other Cylon passed, and the last remaining blond toaster stepped forward to ram the heel of her foot into Lee's stomach. He doubled over from the blow, and a feeling of helplessness suddenly washed over Kara. She wasn't going to make it in time so why was she even trying? It was suddenly so clear how easy it would be to just give into the pain and let herself go.

The sound of Lee crying out in pain as the Cylon rained punches down onto his broken body snapped her back into reality. She couldn't just sit back, wallowing in pain, as the Cylon robbed her of the one person who had never failed her. She grabbed a piece of metal railing off the ground and, pushing the pain away, forced herself to hobble the last few yards.

The metal connected with the Cylon's head with a satisfying thump just as Kara felt something snap in her leg and went crashing to the ground. Lee's eyes moved briefly to look at her concerned before he pushed it away in order to take advantage of the window of opportunity she had given him. He kicked the Cylon in the stomach to push her away from where Kara lay, gasping in pain. He didn't want to chance that Kara might get tangled up in what he had to do.

Lee grabbed a fistful of platinum blond hair and dragged the machine to her feet. "Your god has abandoned you," he hissed into her ear before punching his right hand into her stomach. "How does that feel?" He pulled his hand away, and the Cylon slipped to the ground, devoid of life.

As she finally got the pain in her knee under control, Kara looked up to stare at the back of Lee, watching his shoulders rise and fall as he struggled to catch his breath. Her mind was trying desperately to find some way to understand the bloody scene that lay before her. Her friend had just brutally attacked three Cylons with the intent to literally rip their hearts out, and for some reason, she found no real problem with that. Life had scarred her from feeling empathy or sympathy a long time ago.

"I told you to stay back, Kara," Lee whispered after a full minute of silence, still refusing to turn and look at her. "I didn't want you to see that."

Kara inched her body over the few feet to where he stood and grabbed his hand, pulling in him down onto the ground with her. "Lee, it doesn't matter. You did what had to be done."

"Don't try to give me a way out of this."

"I'm not. I'm just saying that it doesn't matter to me."

"Gods. When did I turn into a monster?" he whispered, finally tearing his eyes away from the blood on the walls as he dipped his head.

"Killing a few household appliances doesn't make you a monster," Kara insisted. "Now would you stop wallowing and put the claws away?"

Lee followed her gaze and was stunned to realize that he hadn't morphed his hand back to its normal facade. "Sorry," he mumbled as the hand returned to normal.

Kara reached out and lightly pulled the cool metal close to her heart. As long as they were touching, she seemed to be able to get through to him. "You need to forget about what just happened for now, Lee. We need to get to that Heavy raider and get out of here. There are things we still have to do."

She could see something in his head shift as the distant look melted off his face and he turned to look at her. "Your knee?"

"Is well and truly fraked."

"Okay," he said, standing up. Lee reached under Kara's arms and pulled her up to her feet. She leaned on him considerably and made her first tentative step. Her hand tightened around his as the pain shot through her knee, causing her to cry out for him to stop.

"Lee, I can't do this," she whispered. "I can't do this."

"No," he said, pushing her to take another step. "You're not giving up."

"I said I couldn't fraking do this," she screamed, pushing him away. Without his support, she immediately crumbled to the ground. She turned to look up at him and shook her head. "I can't, Lee. It hurts to much."

"I swear to the gods if the next words out of your mouth are to tell me I have to leave you behind, I will kill you myself."

She glared at him. "Don't be a fraking moron. I said I can't do it, so get your ass over here and pick me up."

Lee's eyes went wide. Kara Thrace had never been the type of girl to admit that she needed a anyone's help, especially a man's. He had seen her injure herself in too many ways to count, and not once did she ever let anyone carry her. He found it odd that within these dire circumstances, she could still surprise him. Smiling he slid one arm around her back and the other underneath her knees.

Kara tensed at first and fought him, mostly out of habit. When his grip on her body tightened, she seemed to give in and relaxed against him as he scooped her up to fit snuggly in his arms. "My hero," she grumbled.

"And don't you ever forget it," he said with a laugh.

Lee hadn't lied to her. They were only a corridor and a half away from the hangar bay below which she had landed the Heavy Raider. Kara figured that was a good thing considering she didn't know how much longer she could suck in her pride and let herself rely on him completely.

He set her gently down on the ground next to the ladder and stared down into the hole leading to the launch tube. "How are you going to get down there?"

"We'll cross that bridge when we get there," Kara said, briefly looking down the hole before leaning against the hangar wall for support. She watched Lee subtly begin to look around the hangar. "They're not here, Lee."

"They'll be here," he said firmly, still scanning the hangar bay for signs of movement.

Kara reached out to grab his hand and pulled his attention to her. "You have to accept the fact that they might not be coming. Look how hard it was for you and I to get here and we're pretty much the best the Fleet had."

"They're a lot tougher than you give them credit for, Kara. The four of us survived ten days on a ship infested with Centurians before you showed up. They'll be here."

Almost as if on cue, the hangar bay door slid open and familiar faces began to filter in led by Boomer. Kara could feel a little twinge of relief come flooding over her before her whole body filled up with concern. The little ragtag group was not looking good.

"What happened?" Lee yelled as he rushed over to put his arm around the physically battered Boomer.

"Cylons. What happened to you?"

"Cylons," he said with a smile. He took a quick glance at the group as they all stumbled towards their ride. "Status?"

"Helo and the pregnant copy of me are just fine. We protected them just like I knew you would want us to. However, we took a bad hit. Hot Dog's probably got at least five broken ribs, maybe a broken wrist, and some third-degree burns on his left leg. I managed to get out of there with only a few cuts and bruises to add to my collection, but that could have just been because of my resilient nature."

"Interesting way to say you're a machine," Lee said with a laugh. He waited for her to continue in her report. When she didn't, a knot formed in his gut. He turned to look at the last member of their group. "What about Billy?"

Sharon followed his gaze. The young presidential aide was holding a piece of cloth to his side. The cloth was already soaked through with blood. "Billy's not going to make it, Lee," she whispered. "He's hurt too bad."

"No. I won't believe that."

"A Centurian cut his side." Boomer's eyes lingered on his hand for a second. The action didn't slip past Lee. "Under normal circumstances we could stitch him right up. But we don't have the supplies or the time. The Cylons are only steps behind us. We need to take off now. Billy knows what he has to do, Lee. Let him be the hero."

Lee nodded and let go of his hold on Boomer as they made it to the ladder. In the past ten days, they had all spoken about what it would take to get off the Galactica. They all knew that one of them would have to stay behind to keep the Cylons occupied. Lee had always assumed it would be him.

"What's wrong?" Kara asked. She had watched Hot Dog, Helo, Sharon, and then the other Boomer all force their half-broken bodies to go down the ladder. Not one person had said a word or even looked in her direction.

Lee slipped his hand behind Kara's back and moved her the few steps to the ladder hole. "You're going to have to bear the pain and help me get you down there now, Kara."

She gave him a nod and grabbed the first rung before pausing to look at him. "Tell me what's going on, Lee. Why is Billy not getting on the ship?"

Lee turned to see Billy standing resolutely a few feet away from the hangar doors. He gave the young man a small nod of respect in goodbye and indicated Kara should start climbing. "He's giving us the chance to get out of here. Don't make him waste it."

Kara looked over her shoulder to see Billy already moving back through the open hangar bay door. "I don't understand."

"Someone has to keep the Cylons occupied so that we have time to launch." Lee stepped onto the ladder and put his arm around Kara's waist.

Slowly they lowered themselves down each step together, words forgotten as they focused on what they were doing. Lee could see the pain written on Kara's face as she did her best to keep the weight off of her knee. When they were four rungs from the end, Lee jumped down. "Let go and I'll catch you."

Kara didn't argue. She was tired of being in pain and at least letting go would end it in one way or another. She wasn't surprised though when Lee caught her just like promised. Her feet touched the floor, and she hesitantly tried a step.

The next thing she knew, Lee had scooped her up into his arms again and was walking towards the open ramp of the Heavy Raider.

"Why him, Lee?" Kara asked, tightening her hold around his neck. "Billy is hurt just as bad as I am. Why don't you let me do it?"

"Two reasons. Number one, Billy's wound isn't treatable right now. The Cylons cut into him. He's going to bleed to death within the hour if we don't get the wound stitched. Not a big deal normally, but we don't have the supplies or the time to do that right now. It's just another loss to blame the toasters for."

"Just something else to carry around on your shoulders?" Kara asked with a sarcastic hint in her voice. She let out a grunt as Lee lowered her down onto the ground inside the Raider.

"Someone has to carry the pain."

Kara saw his eyes dart away from her to look into the cockpit where Boomer was currently powering up the ship's systems. "Go. You know you personally want to make sure we get out of this place."

He held her gaze a second before nodding and walking towards the controls. Kara watched him pause to say a few words to Hot Dog. She saw the young pilot wince in pain as he tried to communicate with the man who had once been his CAG. Her mind registered there was something she could do to make herself useful, and using the sides of the ship, she pulled herself to her feet.

"Move over, Hot Dog," she said once she had reached where he sat alone.

Hot Dog cleared a space for her, and she used the wall to sit herself down beside him. "Shirt. Off," she demanded.

"I've been waiting months to hear you say that," he joked.

"Glad to see you still have that impeccable talent for inappropriate humor, Constanza."

Hot Dog smiled at her. "Wow, Starbuck. I didn't think you actually knew my name."

"It was on the paperwork from when you washed out, kid," she said with a laugh as she tore pieces off his discarded shirt and wrapped them around his abdomen. The ship rumbled to life. Kara could feel it slowly pick up off the ground but tried not to dwell on it. She also tried not to think of the brave young man they were leaving behind. "This is going to be a little tight and a lot painful, but it should lessen the pain you feel when breathing and talking. I figure that's all you really need to do for the next few hours."

"Sounds like fun."

Once Hot Dog's ribs were securely wrapped, Kara began to look around the ship for something to start the next part of her nurse routine. "Helo," she said, pointing at the piece of metal scrap near his feet. "Throw that here."

Helo did as she asked with only a slightly questioning look in his eye. "Are you all right, Kara?"

"I'm alive," she said with a shrug. "How are you two doing?"

"We're fine," Helo said, tightening where his arm lay on Sharon's shoulders. "You should have seen the way they protected her, Kara."

"She's important," Hot Dog said.

"I think we all realize that," Kara added as her eyes met Sharon's. She gave the Cylon a small nod before turning back to Hot Dog. "Wrist." Trying her best not to jerk the area too bad, she used the remaining pieces of cloth and the scrap metal to fashion a make-shift splint. "I can't do anything about the burns. I'm sorry."

"You're doing more than enough considering you're probably hurting just as much as me."

"I've learned to live with pain a hell of a lot worse than this," she said. Using the ship's wall, she pulled herself back up to her feet.

"Thanks, Starbuck," Hot Dog said.

Her heart instantly recognized the smile he gave her for what it was. He was trying to be brave. Even through all the pain he had been put through, he was trying to lessen the weight on her shoulders. "I want you to know that I'm proud of you, Hot Dog. It takes a hell of a person to survive what you did down there." She gave him a genuine smile. "And you can call me Kara. I think you've earned that."

"Nah," he said with a laugh. "I always thought God had a much better ring to it."

She chuckled and hobbled her way back to the end of the Raider. Sliding to a seat on the floor, she let her eyes shut and tried to push the pain of what had happened to her in the past week and a half far from her mind. For now, she just wanted to focus on the fact that she was alive.

"Kara?"

She forced her eyes to open and look at Lee. He was kneeling beside her with a normal look of concern plastered across his face. "What do you want?" she said with a groan.

"Nothing," he said, shaking his head. "It's just we're in the air and on our way to Kobol. Boomer can handle the flying by herself, and I'm rather tired."

"I think you woke me up," she said abruptly, narrowing her eyes at him.

"Well, yeah. I did."

"Was there a reason for that? Besides to tell me that you're tired, too?"

Lee rolled his eyes and took a seat next to her. "I thought you might want some company back here. That's all."

She turned her head to look at him and realized that the haze of being pulled from sleep was making her oblivious to what he was really saying. Sometimes it was hard to interpret the riddles the two of them seemed to talk in. She always seemed to get the point eventually, though. Some times it came quicker than others.

Without a word, she nudged his arm out of the way and snuggled into his side. She could feel him move to accommodate her.

"How's your knee feeling?" Lee asked.

"I'm used to the pain by now," Kara whispered before her mouth pulled itself into a yawn.

"Go to sleep," he said, kissing the top of her head lightly. "Boomer will make sure we're up as soon as we reach Kobol."

Kara nodded and shut her eyes. Sleep eluded her, though, as her thoughts kept drifting back to a conversation never finished. "Lee?" She looked up to see that he had shut his eyes, too, in an attempt to catch some sleep.

"Hmmm?"

"What was the second reason why Billy had to be the one to stay behind?"

"I was being selfish," Lee said, his voice taking on a serious tone.

"How so?"

"Like you said, the only other person wounded enough to qualify for the job was you. I wasn't about to let you go now that you've come back to me."

"Is that because of your early profession of love?" she teased.

He glared at her before shutting his eyes. "You're dreaming it, Kara."

"No, I'm not. You said you loved me and nothing I can do would change that."

"I lied."

"No, you didn't. You love me," she taunted.

"Shut up, brat. I'm trying to sleep here."

"You can't take it back, Captain. You love me."

"Every second I think I love you less and less," he said, pulling her in a little tighter.

"Yeah. I feel the same way," she said with a smile as she shut her eyes.

They fell into silence as both of them just enjoyed the physical comfort of having the other person near. The second end of the world had come and gone just as quickly as the first. This one was easier to cope with now that they finally understood what they had in each other. They had someone they could trust, someone they could rely on, and together they had a plan as to where they were heading. Things could be a lot worse.

Kara felt herself begin to drift off to sleep as her mind focused on one last thing. She was stuck with the task of starting over now that her second world had ended, and she couldn't stop thinking all that meant was this was just another beginning. It was time to build a third world. For some strange reason, that gave her hope and a strong feeling of determination.

Because one thing was for certain. The Cylons may have taken Caprica and they may have taken Galactica. But Kara was currently lying in the arms of the third place she had ever called home, knowing only one thing.

She sure as frak wasn't going to let the Cylons take this home away from her.


End file.
